In the view of many, humanity in the 21st Century has arrived at the
cuff of a historic revolution, one which if its potential is realized
will ultimately lead to a reconciled and peaceful global family, a true
one-family world.

Innovations in modern technology are facilitating this revolution. Most
recently, the emergence of the worldwide web and social media are serving
as a global nervous system connecting the human community at an entirely
new level.

Despite the profoundly transformative impact of such technologies, they
are likely only the symbols of a much more profound evolution emerging
from within the human family.

Three developments occurring in recent decades are particularly noteworthy.

The first integrative force has been the emergence of an age of religious
ecumenism, resulting in the interpenetration by different spiritual traditions
of heretofore mono-religious cultures. This is allowing bridges of understanding
and appreciation to be built where there had previously been animosity
and fear. Given the significance of religion and/or spiritual commitment
in the lives of much of humanity, this new era of religious tolerance
and respect is a huge development in opening the way to a greater connectedness
for the global family.

The second factor pointing to a coming one family world is an emerging
consciousness in many circles of the essential oneness of humanity. The
idea is that beneath our apparent separateness as individuals we are in
fact organically One.

This insight is finding increasing expression in the teachings of leading
contemporary spiritual thinkers. Shortly before his death, for example,
the well-known Trappist monk Thomas Merton commented to an interfaith
gathering in Thailand:

"We are already one. But we imagine we are not. What we have
to recover is our original unity. What we have to become is what we
(already) are."

Likewise, the Vietnamese peace activist and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat
Hanh introduces the concept of "Interbeing" and explains that as humans
we "inter are" with each other and with all sentient beings. For teacher
Hahn the task now facing the human family is to "awaken from our illusion
of separateness."

Along the same lines, the highly regarded Christian thinker Cynthia Bourgeault
argues that Jesus' emphasis on "lov(ing) your neighbor as yourself," means
loving your neighbor not "as much as" yourself, but rather loving him/her
simply as a different expression of the deeper Self we all share.

Jesus' teaching thus points to an organic unity which all human beings
share. Our superficial separateness is only one dimension of our total
life.

This unitive consciousness is now emerging. While obviously it needs
to be embraced more widely, its increasing recognition and adoption is
nurturing the ideal of global unity.

The third factor pointing to a one family world is the emergence on the
global level of the central component of a family, parents. This is the
mission of Korea's Dr. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.

Speaking to an Assembly of World Religions held in San Francisco in the
early 1990's, Dr. Moon explained his idea of global parents, arguing that
in a family the relations between siblings exists on the basis of their
having common parents and that by a similar logic the emergence of a harmonious
global family requires the emergence of parents on a global level.

As is well known, the teaching of each of the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam, is that all human beings are direct or indirect
descendants of a common set of spiritual parents, parents whose fall led
to their own alienation, to fratricide in their immediate family and to
continuing dysfunction and conflict in subsequent generations. Dr. and
Mrs. Moon understand it is their task to reverse the parents' role in
this history and to restore in the 21st century the position of parents
of true love for an emerging, reconciled, global family.

The position of restored global parents is crucial as it is ultimately
only with this position in place that the possibility of a one family
world becomes real. Parental love is the element which can serve as a
harmonizing center for world community.

Each of the three developments is transformative in itself and mutually
reinforcing of the others. Their full fruition, however, ultimately depends
on another development- the flow of true love within individuals, families
and communities. It is true love which can foster the spirit of ecumenism,
which can bridge our apparent separateness and which enables the position
of global parents to be established.

All this said, and within the context of these broad developments, the
vision of a one family world is ultimately rooted in the growth and transformation
of each person. We each have a role to play, a role which impacts everyone
else:

"I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world
gains with him, and if one person falls, the whole world falls to that
extent."